Here Comes The Exam Season

First off, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Like most of you guys I’ve been snowed in with revision and coursework. This is only going to be a short one for now, but I’ve got a big one coming for those who love to read.

Anyway, the exam season is just around the corner and many of us (myself included) start to feel the very real pressure of possibly failing, whether it be psychology to law, or English to maths, almost everyone is stressing. For me it’s all about maths, I personally can’t be dealing with another fail in maths. But even though I’m well on track for passing, or maybe even getting a B in maths I’m still feeling a very real threat of failure. I think it’s time that we all stop stressing about these things and just focus on doing well, not thinking about the grades themselves, but just focusing on doing the best we can, because then if you fail, you know that you’ve done your best and you can’t beat yourself up over it. So come on guys, stop stressing and just get on with it!

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Keeping Organized

Organisation, this is something that is considered more of chore than something that is quite useful. The little things like keeping specific pieces of coursework in organised folders. This is a topic that could become somewhat confusing so bear with me.

I’m going to go off of my own organisational skills so some of you might even be better organised than I am. To view the full sized screen shot click on the images that are all in order at the bottom. So what do I do? Personally most of my work in college is on computer so it’s pretty easy to keep organised and I've noticed that if I didn't stay organised I would have to search through hundreds of files to find the work I’m currently doing and I could see that getting pretty confusing. The first thing I do is create a folder with this structure in naming “Frederick Knott – Business Studies” this is what it looks like. I like to keep it in a first letter capital structure because of my slight OCD. After you go into this folder you’ll notice that I have a folder for each tutor that teach me different topics to others and the ones who teach the same topic get put into the same folder. Jumping into the folder with two tutors for example sake my law folder, I have the folder with Beth and then Jasmine, then I have the assignment sheets and assessment records on the outside, this is so I know exactly where they are and I can just go straight to them when I need to. Once you go into the folders you’ll be met with pass, merit and distinction folders, these are self-explanatory. Once you get into the pass folder I have yet more folders and most of you are probably thinking “another folder!” but this is because in these units there are a lot of passes that have to be done in comparison to merits and distinctions. I have them split into different categories like “Business Law – Leaflets” and “Business Law – Posters” this is to ensure that I don’t have to look around for what I need to get to. For the units that require that I have lots of different images I then separate them from the work itself so that I have something to back me up just in case I lose the work.

That’s pretty much it for my way of organising my work. I can’t help with organising paper based stuff because I don’t do that kind of thing, but if you guys have any suggestions just leave a comment on how you do it :) Also most of my organisation is OCD like and convenience so do what works for you and I wrote this because when I've managed to have this standard of organisation in my work I feel proud of it (weird I know) but I thought I'd share it with you guys :)

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Getting Help When YOU Need It

We've all been there, that time where you feel like everything is getting on top of you and the stress becomes a little too much. Some people can cope others (like me) seem to just give up sometimes and it’s easy to forget that there are people that can help you in these situations. So here’s a little advice.

1)   Accepting that you need a little help – A lot of people never even acknowledge that they need some help with this, accepting that you do isn’t a weakness. If anything it’s a strength because it involves accepting that you can’t deal with everything that is going on whether that is to do with your work or personal life it’s good to get the practical things out of the way, especially coursework because you don’t want to the work to pile up in times of stress as it would just end up adding to your stress.

2)  Seeking Help – This is another thing that people struggle with, most feel embarrassed or as if they are being a pest. I can guarantee that you wouldn’t be the first student to struggle, you’re only human and your college or school will know this. There is most likely someone to help you in school or college to email people you think will know about said person, for example your tutor or head of year if you’re in school. Remember you can get help with the stress itself or with the things that are stressing you out like coursework of the whole subject, just going to a tutor and having them explain things to you does a world of good.

3)  Follow the advice! – This is the biggest of them all! A lot of people go to see someone about some help in a close minded attitude. So because of this the advice they give you could be the best advice ever but you won’t follow it because you either think you are above it or you just don’t want to. So ironically, my advice would be to follow their advice! You’ve gone for the help that you need so you do need to follow that advice no matter what!

4)    Find stress relievers – this is the final step which is the most useful one of all. Find things that calm you down, whether that is just taking an hour or so to watch something on the TV or listening to music just do it. You need a rest you can’t be expected to do everything at once all of the time, you’ll just become more frustrated and everything you’ve gone and done so far would have been a waste, just sit back and relax!

That’s what I think you should do based on my personal experience, you’re not the only that struggles every so often :)

If you’ve got any good tips for relieving some stress let me know by either leaving a comment or by tweeting me at @Jayson__Knott :)

Looking For The Right University

So many of us have probably been thinking about university and some of us are studying for a BTEC qualification like me. But when you look at university courses online most of us have noticed that more often than not you see that their requirements are usually A-Level or AS. So what does this mean for BTEC? I mean take what I study for example, I do Business Studies Level 3 Extended Diploma which is equivalent to 3 A-levels. But what does this mean?

I recently had a look at Manchester University for International Management with American Business Studies and when I had a look at the entry requirements at first I was a little confused because I study BTEC and I had to look for the alternative entry requirements but after I found the BTEC option it became clearer. After look around more at different universities I got gist for the entry requirements and what most business courses have to offer.

So how do you find a course that suits you? Well coming from me I don’t have an exact way of doing this, I’d recommend just research and even if you have your heart set on a specific course, keep looking because you could find a uni with better version of that course or you might even stumble across something that interests you more. I’ve recently been looking around at universities and because my main access to the internet is through my phone and the computers at college, I would do basic research on my phone, like looking local universities and then I’d email my college email the links. After this I would go into college and when I got some free time I made a little table with what uni it was, the course, brief description, location of the uni and then the link. Of course this is just a starting point for me, I have until next year to worry about this but it’s good to have a head start instead of worrying too much when it comes to it.

Got a better way to look for a good uni? 

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Leave a comment :) 

My NCS Experience

For those of you that don't know what NCS is, NCS is what I would consider volunteering but it doesn't feel like it. It’s more of a fun thing to do, almost like an adventure. I first learnt about NCS through a friend who had done it before me, but I didn't really pay much attention to it. After a couple months I had a PDP session at college which is essentially a little Assembly and NCS had a little presentation on there. They talked all about what happens, the experiences we would have if we signed up and also some statistics, stuff that most don't usually care about.

The two things that really stood out to me where it looks good on your CV and UCAS form and the big seller for me was the confidence boost. I'll admit, I was a little susceptible at first but I thought why not go for it and see what happens?

Meet three of our leaders!

Cutting a long story short I got an email telling me where and when I had to go for NCS. I went there with my friend Ieva and at first we assumed we'd be on the same team. When we got there we found out that Ieva had turn up to the wrong meet up. Turns out she was on another wave, we had a good laugh about it and I teased her about it until she was taken to her meet up. So after being separated from someone I was sort of planning on clinging to because of my shear lack of confidence around new people I just followed the people I was supposed to follow. I was given a team and told to follow one of the PM's (personal mentors) and off I went to my team. I was in the media team (team Edwards). Before long I was sat in this massive sports hall in a circle with my team. I was extremely nervous, I didn't speak and I didn't even laugh at things I found funny. Everyone talked among themselves for a while our PM started these little ice breaking activities, which still didn't work all too well for me, but it did break the ice a little. I ended up making one my team mates twerk so it was a success really. 

After all the activities it was time to get going up to somewhere County Durham and to this day I still don't know exactly where it was because (for me at least) it was that remote. On the journey up their I was sat next to one of my team mates Conrad and it took me a good couple hours to actually attempt conversation and even then I was sweating when I was trying to.

This all goes to show how little confidence I USED to have around people.

When we got to the place, we were shown our rooms, told all the rules, the boring less interesting stuff. We went and chose our beds, these were wooden bunk beds and if I'm to be entirely honest I wasn't looking forward to sleeping in them. In that room I met Saul, now this guy was hilarious, I can honestly say he reduced the tension in the air because he just got everyone laughing with jokes I can't really repeat on here ha ha. 

After loads of different team meetings I got pretty comfortable with my group and even with other people in the wave, the confidence was starting to build. I found myself speaking up which is something I never thought I was going to do. In a social situation I was already out of my comfort zone. So at this point the group was bonded pretty well and the activities we did seemed a little petty beforehand but it was fun when we got down to it. The first one we did was the high ropes, now this was one of my massive fears... Heights. So I climbed this log that got higher and higher as I went further along, this was a good 3 meters of the ground and I was even scared of that! The next one was the leap of faith. I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to do this one because this was REALLY high up. But it decided to go for it. I sprung up and climbed up there as fast as I could, got to the top and made the worst mistake. I looked down. The fear was immense. But I thought back to what I just did a couple minutes ago, I just went for it! So I jumped and punched that ball dangling a meter away from the platform. I was so relieved! My team was cheering, I knew that it was because it’s what you’re supposed to do but even so it was a pretty good feeling. 

After all the amazing experiences in County Durham it was time to head back and at this point our team had bonded REALLY well, I felt like I knew these people for years. On the way back I was sat next to Anna who was also in my team. This wasn't a repeat of the last journey, at this point I'd found my self-confidence so I was talking freely without worrying, not just with Anna but with everyone around me. I sort of became a little dominate which was a completely different ball game. I was telling everyone my stories with such enthusiasm, it was like I was a totally different person. 

After we got back we was told to come back to the meet up spot and we will start the next part of the challenge. At this stage we my team had to create a promotional video for a disability centre in Stockport called Primus. Here we met some phenomenal people, from the people with disabilities to the people who care and help look after them. When we got outside we thought it would be almost like a medical centre, however when we actually went inside it was a completely different case. It was a really homey place, everyone was just relaxing, talking, playing games or just on the internet and talking to people around them. The most challenging part was filming for the video because it was hard not to feel rude, because these people where just doing their own thing and to film them just seemed like an invasion of privacy. So we asked them if they wanted to be filmed and they were so pleasant. So we did our thing, we filmed and talked to most of them there. This was an eye opening experience, something I would do all over again.

So we headed back and the only thing we spoke about on the short coach journey was the little encounters and things that we saw there. We were buzzing. 

Filming 

Here was the real challenge though. When we got back we had all the footage we needed, it was a big pile of interviews and loads of different shots for transitions. Now we had to put them all together and create a high standard promotional video for Primus. So for a good couple hours we went over how we wanted to come across to the audience, happy or more of a serious maybe even heart breaking theme? Then we thought back to what our experience was with them, it was a very positive and uplifting experience. So I said "why not try to give our audience the same experience that we had... happy, I mean come on, do you really think that Primus would want a heart breaking PROMOTIONAL video?" So we went for it. But this was only just the beginning. We had to come up with story boards and leaders of two different teams. Because we had to create this video and also present it to the rest of the wave, we had to have two teams that would make the video and also put a presentation together. In the video team we had me, Sian, Conrad, Haidar and Nicole and in the other team we had Anna, Alina, Khushba and Etty. 

All hard work here...

The next task was to structure the video, so we had the idea of splitting our group into three parts. Two people would work on the first part of the video, another two on the middle and another two for the final section. I worked on the middle, but I was the director of the video team so I had to manage everyone's area. This meant that I had to edit my section with Etty who was also working with the presentation team and then help with the other two section. This became a little stressful but it meant that all three sections had the same design in terms of transitions and text. Cutting it short again we finished the video just in time and then we presented the video to our wave and it was pretty well received.

The final part of the challenge was next. We had to come up with a campaign that we would follow through and conduct in Piccadilly Gardens. 

So we went back up to our room and brainstormed our ideas and we even pitched some of our ideas to the group. We had so many ideas but the one we kept on coming back to was young stereo types. So once we came up with the idea we started to formulate it, we came up with a name logo and we came up with a little activity for people to do with us on campaign day. The name was TOTS and our activity was a matching game where we got facts about successful people of today which where all about their younger life.

Cutting the long thought process short, we had to pitch our campaign to dragons so that we could get the money we needed to get these campaigns going. So again we had to come up with another presentation with all the facts that they would need to invest in the campaign. In the script we had individual roles to play, mine was to tell the dragons about how much we needed for specific items and why. At the end we got the money we needed and went off to finalize our campaign.

Moving forward a week later, it was campaign day.

Campaign Day!

Campaign day was exciting for all of us but it was the last day we would all see each other, so the mood was a little low at first but we kept to it. At first it felt like it was dragging because not that many people took interest, but after a couple hours we had so many people around our stall we was finding it hard to cope. Then at the end of the day, the leaders gave speeches and we all had a laugh, but the highlight was when some of us did the Ghost chili pepper challenge. I was offered some but I was sane enough to refuse. 

I've made some amazing memories doing NCS, met some amazing people, and had amazing experiences and most of all it’s given me the confidence to go do whatever I even get tempted by. All of this just because I wanted something extra to put down on a CV or UCAS form!

It’s been the most worth wile experience of my life and I recommend this to anyone who has the opportunity to do this, you won't regret it. If I could I would do it all over again! 

It all starts at a yes!

Is It Worth Leaving It Last Minute?

The one thing I've noticed about college is that in those subjects where you have a lot of coursework its easy to let the work pile up. I'm guilty of this myself, there's always that one thing you want to first "oh I'll do it when I've watched this" or the classic "I'll do it tomorrow instead" and before you know it, your doing the work in a last minute panic barely scraping the deadline.

I don't know about you guys but personally I worry about the work more than I actually do the work itself!

I think it's time that we all stopped with the excuses and got the work done. I've recently stopped making those cliche excuses and just making a start as soon as I get the work. I can honestly say it feels WAY better. You are able to just relax after it knowing that now you can have those few hours of procrastinating doing whatever you want! 

My advice would be just simply get that work done as soon as you get it, mainly because now in BTEC there isn't the case where you can just hand the work in over and over again, get it back marked and then easily get the grade you want. Now you've only got one chance at a resub and that's it, if you fail, you just fail.

So is it worth it? 

I'll leave that to you.

What was your best excuse for not doing any coursework? Let me know in the comments :)